1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plasma display device and, in particular, to a plasma display device having a heat dissipation structure to induce a natural convection flow in the front and back sides of a Plasma Display Panel (PDP).
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well known that a plasma display device uses a plasma generated by gas discharge to produce an image on a Plasma Display Panel (PDP). The plasma display device comprises: a PDP; a chassis base having a first side to support the PDP; and driving circuit boards attached to a second side of the chassis base, the second side of the chassis base being opposite to the first side of the chassis base where the PDP is attached; wherein the driving circuit boards are electrically connected to sustain electrodes and address electrodes of the PDP via a flexible printed circuit and connectors.
Generally, the PDP is a weak component in terms of mechanical strength because its structure is made of two glass substrates. Therefore, a chassis base made of a metallic material is used to give additional mechanical strength to the PDP for maintaining the mechanical stability.
Besides the role of maintaining the mechanical strength of the PDP, the chassis base serves to fix the driving circuit boards, to dissipate heat from the PDP, and to ground the Electro Magnetic Interference (EMI) of the PDP.
The PDP is attached to a first side of the chassis base, and the driving circuit boards are attached to a second side of the chassis base, opposite to the first side of the chassis base. Instead of a screw connection, which has a difficulty in forming a screw hole on the glass substrate of the PDP, double-sided tape is used to attach the PDP to the first side of the chassis base. On the second side of the chassis base, bosses are formed where the driving boards are fixed by set screws.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,971,566 discusses a structure for attaching a PDP to the chassis base as described above. A heat conduction medium is inserted between the chassis base and the PDP. The chassis base dissipates the heat conducted from the PDP via the heat conduction medium and from the driving boards.
Such a plasma display device connects the PDP and the chassis base via double-sided tape, which blocks contact of the heat conduction medium with the air. As a result, the heat from the PDP is mainly dissipated by natural convection on the front side of the PDP and is partially conducted through the chassis base to the driving circuit boards. This prevents efficient heat dissipation from the PDP and the printed circuit boards.